Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment

Traumatic brain injury is a complicated condition that requires complex treatment. Treatment aims to help a person survive the initial trauma (acute), to minimize complications, and to provide long-term care and rehabilitation (sub acute).

Acute Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment

Acute traumatic brain injury treatment is short-term care that focuses on saving a person's life. Doctors work to regulate pulse and breathing using a respirator. If a person is not breathing, cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is necessary. Doctors may also place a person on a ventilator to increase blood flow to injured brain tissues (hyperventilation). Only after a person's vital signs are stabilized can the brain injury is treated.

Closed head injury and open head injury are treated differently. Open head injury treatment depends largely on how badly the skull is fractured and how badly the brain is damaged. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an intracranial pressure monitor (ICP), or computed tomography (CT) scans can detect any unapparent traumatic brain injury complications such as hematoma. Open head injury victims are prone to infection, as the skull is fractured and brain tissues are exposed to the environment. Doctors often administer antibiotics to prevent or to treat infections. Surgery is most often necessary to repair a fractured skull. During surgery, bone fragments are sometimes removed and replaced with synthetic skull pieces.

Closed head injury requires special treatment to relieve increased intracranial pressure. Doctors evaluate increased intracranial pressure and brain swelling using an intracranial pressure (ICP) monitor. The monitor is inserted into the skull to measure pressure. If pressure rises too high, doctors administer strong medications to decrease pressure and to eliminate excess fluid from the brain.

If medications cannot sufficiently decrease intracranial pressure, surgery is necessary. During surgery, a neurosurgeon drills holes into the skull or removes skull pieces (craniotomy) in order to extract intracranial fluid and relieve excess pressure. Acute treatment also focuses on preventing and treating complications such as seizures. Seizures may include only minor twitching or complete full body convulsions. Seizures are particularly dangerous during acute traumatic brain injury treatment as a person may have other head or body injuries that become worse when doctors can not control a person's movements.

Sub Acute Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment

Sub acute traumatic brain injury treatment provides long-term care that monitors a person's level of consciousness, treats complications, and promotes recovery.

Following acute treatment, a person may be transported to a hospital or rehabilitation center that specializes in managing traumatic brain injury. Hospital staff treats bed sores, muscle atrophy, infections, and other complications like seizures.

A person's level of consciousness is also closely monitored. As a person's brain injury improves or worsens, so too may the level of consciousness. Two widely used scales to evaluate a person's level of consciousness are the Glasgow Coma Scale and the Rancho Los Amigos Scale. The Glasgow Coma Scale is a simple, 15 point scale that evaluates a person's level of consciousness and chances for recovery. The Rancho Los Amigos Scale is a much more complex scale that categorizes a patient's status into eight separate levels of consciousness and gives doctors insight into a patient's progression through treatment.

If a person's level of consciousness improves, neurologists, physical therapists, speech therapists, and other traumatic brain injury specialists help victims regain basic physical and cognitive functions such as bathing, eating, walking, talking, and reading and writing.

There are traumatic brain injury treatment centers that specialize in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation and care. To learn more about traumatic brain injury treatment centers and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, please read other articles on this site.

[Last revision: March 2007]